While it has been possible to watch Vines on the web since the app premeired in January of last year, users couldn’t click on a username to see a full profile or navigate the app from the web at all — until this past Friday, that is. Vine has expanded its web features to include a desktop viewer experience, allowing users to find their favorite videos and friends on a new platform.

Vine Creates Desktop Version

While it has been possible to watch Vines on the web since the app premeired in January of last year, users couldn’t click on a username to see a full profile or navigate the app from the web at all — until this past Friday, that is. Vine has expanded its web features to include a desktop viewer experience, allowing users to find their favorite videos and friends on a new platform.

To take a look at Vine online, users simply head to vine.co and enter their username to experience a desktop version of the app that includes the home feed and the ability to like or comment on videos. Vines autoplay as users scroll through the homepage, and it’s easy to share your own user page with others. The web version also offers a cool feature especially designed for desktop viewing, called “TV Mode,” which allows for full-screen viewing.

While it is unclear whether this expanded functionality will bring new fans to Vine, it should nevertheless help boost user engagement, since it gives users another way to browse through videos. Increased engagement may turn casual users into more enthusiastic fans — we just have to wait and see.

Major Snapchat Leak

Utilizing a slightly modified version of an exploit pointed out by Gibson Security last week, a group managing a site called SnapchatDB.info published a list of 4.6 million usernames and phone numbers easily pulled from Snapchat. While the site has been suspended by the host due to overwhelming traffic, a cached version of the site can still be found, and it’s likely that the list is being distributed through other online sources as well.

Explaining the reasoning behind the release, the group explains, “This database contains username and phone number pairs of a vast majority of the Snapchat users. This information was acquired through the recently patched Snapchat exploit and is being shared with the public to raise awareness on the issue. The company was too reluctant at patching the exploit until they knew it was too late and companies that we trust with our information should be more careful when dealing with it.”

What’s Trending

Snapchat CEO Discusses Deal With Facebook

Snapchat shocked much of the tech community late last year when a report in the Wall Street Journal revealed that it had turned down a $3 billion cash acquisition offer from Facebook. Now, Snapchat’s CEO has offered an explanation for why he hasn’t sold the company yet. “There are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this,” Evan Spiegel told Forbes for a cover story profiling the cofounder and CEO, which was published online Monday. “I think trading that for some short-term gain isn’t very interesting.”

New Polaroid Camera Connects To Instagram

Polaroid announced plans at CES to release Socialmatic, a camera that takes Polaroid film photographs and connects to the Internet, in the fall of 2014. The squat, colorful camera bears more than a passing resemblance to the Instagram logo, and it looks like a fun gadget, one that combines the throwback appeal of handling physical pictures with digital sharing culture. Socialmatic lets you play in both worlds, since it connects to Wi-Fi and runs on Android, and allows users to print out a physical picture while simultaneously posting to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, and any other online destination.

HBO’s Girls Joins Snapchat

HBO’s Girls joined Snapchat this week and is using the messaging service to send fans silly pictures, reminders about the season premiere and, soon, shots from the red carpet.This move is just the latest example of the show embracing social media. “We’re totally inspired by the fan behavior,” Sabrina Caluori, HBO’s VP of social media and marketing, told Mashable in an interview last year about Girls. “When we look at all the different social platforms that are out there, we look at what the fans are doing naturally.” Several prominent brands and media outlets have also turned to Snapchat in recent months, including MTV UK, Taco Bell and Seventeen.